GTEK Building on Highway 90 Likely Destination for Bay PD

From Lana Noonan, at last night’s Bay Council meeting (slightly edited for clarity):

Minutes ago Bay St. Louis Councilman-at-Large, Gary Knoblock motioned to have a commercial appraisal on the GTEK building at the corner of Sunset and the Highway 90 Service Road in Bay St. Louis, as a potential home for the Bay St. Louis Police Department. The motion was seconded by Ward 5 Councilman Buddy Zimmerman and passed unanimously.

During the discussion, Zimmerman offered that the city needs a plan to utilize public property. The discussion included the possible demolition of the current, unused Police Station at the corner of Highway 90 and Main Street, the subsequent sale of that property along with the sale of the Garden Center. Mayor Favre also stated the possibility of moving some city offices back to the old City Hall on Second St. and using the top floor of the City Hall on Highway 90 for the Police Department.

The demolition of the old Police Station could cost as much as twenty five to thirty thousand dollars due to asbestos remediation involved in the demolition. The commercial appraisals could cost an average of $1,000 to $2,500 each on Garden Center and GTEK.

The city already owns too much property. We just spent thousands of $$ remodeling city hall to accommodate the police when they didn’t like being with the fire department.
Every city owned property takes money away in the form of property taxes. There should be a hold on buying never properties until the ones we already own are used or sold.

Is it up to code? Energy efficient? Ada approved? Who’s getting what in this deal???? It’s currently on the tax rolls paying $11,667.67 per year. Why take it off the taxes and buy a dog with flees? My councilman ran on getting a grant and building a new state of the art energy efficient police station our finest would be proud of. Not another flooded vacant building.

They should buy the shopping center and completely remodel it. Just raise taxes to fund it. Then we could house the police department, the chamber, casa, Alice’s paintings-Lonnies office, Mardi gras dressed desplays, tourism, or anyone else looking for free or subsidized rent. Its could be called the Bay St Louis business incubator. Its a huge success story in waveland.

This is insanity. Vote in a new Council & Mayor & it’ll get better, they said! These men have no plan at all. They’re grabbing at every chance to get $$$ from the regular citizen while granting OZ zones & tax exempt status to every Tom Dick & Harry & them spending money like crazy WITH NO PLAN.
Leave BPD where it is & work on increasing officer pay so we can maintain our policemen. Spend $$ on training.

Got to agree
No more city property.
Sell what is not needed.
Mayor stayed last night that he wanted city hall for police , court and council.
Everyone else moves to old city hall.
May work?
Sell garden center and use that money to fix up the both buildings.
Seal against this. Unity. All under one roof.
He wants everyone in one building.
Cops and robbers don’t belong with utility, building or public works customers. Not to mention who sees the mayor.
No where should police, criminals and city hall mix.
BSL temporary? Right now.
Walk in the lobby and check that out.

Mayor is correct about not wanting City Hall mixed with the PD. Back in the day I did audit work in small town Mississippi Board room that had a bank style vault with both solid and bar doors. The bar door was where the prisoners were handcuffed and secured before transport to the county jail. I sat through a justice court probable cause hearing once (working my ten key) that involved a young lady accused of murder in another small town. It is much better to keep the justice system out of City Hall from a distraction standpoint alone.

My feeble brain doesn’t understand then, why, the Mayor didn’t force the 2 depts to get along until a solution could be worked out? Why spend my $$$ on a City Hall overhaul? Why not take a breath, until something could be figured out? Exactly what happened between the two depts … it was never shown on BRAVO. It’s just embarrassing & I’m tired of wasting $$ … MY $$

I remember the old station house became uninhabitable during the tail end of the prior administration and they have been vagabonds ever since while a solution was being developed.

Ironically the PD here in Wiggins had the same issue after the City bought the old Hattiesburg Clinic building downtown. The City somehow nabbed the Seabees to come save the day – it took over three years but the City got a new station house.

Have to disagree, just asking. The Mayor may have been the one who suggested or recommended moving PD to City Hall, but Council controls purse strings, by law. Could have told him “no.” The buck stops with Council. No one, Mayor or anyone else, can disperse funds without Council approval. They all have to be held accountable.
Last month, Council let $25,000 walk out the door when they pulled the rug out from under a person who was the only bid on leasing the Garden Center. They have been trying to sell it for over 5 years. Previous administration ( of which Reed and Seal were members) wasted money on a commercial appraisal–came in too low. Now getting another commercial appraisal on it and GTEK building. Appraisals could be a total of at least another $5k; demolition of old Police Station–$25 to 30k. We are looking at $50k, and their last balance in Reserve at end of April was $107,00. Zimmerman suggested getting a “plan” together before they made any moves at Tues. night’s meeting. Seal argued strongly against GTEK. Less than 10 min. later, all voted to start purchase proceedings on GTEK . Plan out the window. Unreal. Knoblock stated that GTEK owner may be willing to finance for city. Hope they are watching these meetings online!!$$$

Two Ward 1’s ! You’re right Stone.. Old City Hall and Depot almost 100 years old heavy won’t stand up to heavy everyday traffic. Sell Garden Center and Old Mold Center Buddy said. Bravo…. We own ton of land there already use property sale money to build nice affordable police complex. Quit raising taxes start raising ideas.

Agree with most and stated mixing PD and City Hall not good.
But at the time no place to go.
Police and fire could have mixed.
Never heard they couldn’t or didn’t.
Dept in turmoil.
Dead chief.
Other investigations.
Officers choked prisoners in hospital.
New chief chokes handcuffed prisoner and resigns.
Shooting and high speed chase.
Thugs with badges.

Another Chief brought in.
PD housed in 3 different locations.
No one to trust. Maybe a few.

Yes they needed a home.
Not the best place but it was a home.
Most up dates were for electronics.
Needed no matter what.

No grants.
No BP money.
No funds from no where.
All was promised by?
Mosquito Man?
No help in Jackson from no one.

So now let’s move on and come up with a plan that does not include getx.
Sell all property not needed and build or remodel something we already own.

But do not waste money on the Gtex building.
If it was worth the money it would not be sitting vacant for the past 14 years.

Gtex would be a terrible option. We should remodel the old PD, borrow and build new state of the art PD pay off over 20 years or contact the PD out to the sheriff. The contract seems to work well for Diamondhead. The Bay has struggled years with PD problems. EF couldn’t get the council to confirm a racist chief. BP money should not go for a neglected building.

I am hoping for the day when our elected officials will invest the same amount of enthusiasm and funding of our hard earned tax dollars into public safety as they do in things like harbors and wealthy non profits. I realize those things are quasi necessary to attract revenue for the entities, and also for the politicians who can use a little bump, $$$, at election time. After all, not much a police officer or fireman can pour into a candidate’s campaign fund at the existing pay the” keepers of the purse” offer them.
The ultimate insult is a “non profit ??” like the Yacht Club can get all the same services from our PD as the tax paying public without having to cough up a penny. And not one elected official has expressed any concern over this.
We need elected officials with better priorities regarding serving ALL of the public that compensates them. Just my opinion.

well Lana, the smart thing for the council to do would be to resend their vote on the GTEK building or MF to Veto it=if he knows what a veto is.
can not wait for this election!
maybe he will read this and take our advice lol….

The businesses need to step up or just stop promoting Tourism. The general public just gets the tax and the clutter of it. Congested roads more tax while they take in the money! Not the way it should work! They don’t tax the hotel or the yachts in the harbor because they want to look like philanthropist! Not one of them donates their own money nor have investments other than their homesteads with a deduction or a business that takes advantage of the fat!

The current elected officials don’t have the courage to question the yatch club status. That mission statement is fraud and Jimmy knows it. Blaine and Bo will vote for whoever makes them feel important with attention and perks. They are spineless or simpleminded. The attorney leads the BOS around in the meeting and the high paid mostly absent county administrator works them over behind the scenes. Goats on a rope is an understatement.

Tim, you are accurate on most. I have a inside on the administrator, the board went into a closed session to discuss his performance a few months ago. They didn’t want to have so many administrator changes in one term. I am told he was scolded and now his time is being documented by an anonymous employee. I’m told his attendance has improved. If not he gets the ax after the election.

When are the Businesses going to directly sponsor tourism? It is their life blood! Why do they continuously come to the tax payer? It is because they can!

Politicians will not cut off the free meals, giving perks like they do to Dan B’s with total control of government parking, etc…. just come to the customer/tax payer and get it from them. Tourism gives em VIP Passes on our nickle! Chamber gives em the same.

the problem is this mayor does not know how to run a city.. Simple
he continues to point his finger at everyone else instead of taking responsibility
this mayor and council has been in office going on three years –
when mf does not know what he is doing he starts lashing out at other people-
at least joey and Lonnie questioned items-follower mf would say yeah dat right
lana, you are so right this council needs to say NO
stop spending
quit raising taxes
start checking on all these contractors that we as tax payers are paying
our city is in shambles
clean our city
festival are happening and our city is embarrassing –

Hey Dootie
Agree with most but can you tell me when MF has pointed the finger and lashed out and has not taken responsibility for what’s going on?
Maybe you can give a few examples of these happenings.
Just seeing what I may have missed.

I think Mike has done a great job, the council raised taxes not the mayor. Mike is accessible, on the job and has common sense. I don’t know of any broken promises by Mike. Something the mayor’s office has been lacking for 40 years.

Dottie
One thing I can say is that there is not much gray area with the mayor.
Straight shooting son of a gun.
No BS or Nonsense
About straight forward as one can be
Like him or not
He is there for all of BSL everyday trying to improve our city.
And stands up against the few that bitch and oppose everything.
Has stated on numerous occasions that he is responsible for problems and takes the blame for things not getting done.
Accepting responsibilities and accountability.
That is Leadership.
When was the last time any elected official accepts the blame for things not getting done?
Keep up the good work Ice.
And still waiting on the answers to HHH’s questions.

Instead of hiding behind a fake name get off your ass go to a clownsul meetin, say stop wasting our money!!! Stir up the pot… flip em the bird… open a can of whoopass!!! Just stopppppp bitching with a fake name!

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